Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #9 - Management and Treatment of the Mentally Ill and Mentally Unwell in Corrections (ACJ9-A004)

The focus of this article is research carried out into the mental health needs for those imprisoned at three prison sites in the New Zealand Corrections, Central Region. The picture of mental health needs from mild to serious was created to inform the services for New Zealand’s only within the wire dedicated 100 bed mental health facility, currently under construction. The review of mental health needs for the 2,000 men placed into these prison settings covered a 12 month period. It included those placed into special prison management (SM) units due to acute mental health or behavioural difficulties (At Risk, Management, and Directed Segregation units). Second, all the psychotropic medication prescribed across the participating prisons was analysed. Due to the over representation of the Indigenous people of New Zealand (52% of prison compared to 14% community), the analysis looked at Māori SM placement and prescribed medication. Key findings from the descriptive analysis were that those placed in special management units for mental health issues were younger; of moderate to high risk of reimprisonment, had repeated placement in these units; and the majority were Māori rather than other ethnicities. In terms of sentence status, the majority were placed in prison for violence but 50% were on remand rather than sentenced. An analysis of psychotropic medication distribution identified a group (n = 390) who were older, majority sentenced, and on lower security management due to compliant behaviour. Most were on antidepressant medication (77%), followed by antipsychotic (39%), stimulant (5.6%), and antianxiety (3.6%). Some differences based on ethnicity were found with higher use of antipsychotic medication for Māori after taking the higher number in prison in this region into account. The service implications of the different mental health needs for this prison population in relation to the proposed new service are discussed.

 

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